USC wins consolation title at St. Clair tournament
Published 10:41 pm Monday, December 30, 2013
United South Central forward Anissa Janzig pulls up a jump shot Monday night against Legacy Christian Academy. — Drew Claussen/Albert Lea Tribune
ST. CLAIR — The United South Central girls’ basketball team controlled the glass during its game with Legacy Christian Academy — and that was the difference.
The Rebels took down the Lions 54-44 on Monday night in the consolation championship game of the St. Clair holiday tournament. USC took down Tri-City United on Saturday after falling to Jackson County Central on Friday by one point in its first game of the tournament. Capturing the consolation crown gave the Rebels fifth place in the eight-team field.
Eryn Eilertson of United South Central shoots over a pair of defenders, while teammate Shianne Robertson watches Monday at the St. Clair holiday tournament. — Drew Claussen/Albert Lea Tribune
“It was our third game in four nights. We’ve played a lot of basketball and asked a lot of some of our girls,” said USC head coach Stu Hendrickson. “They’ve played a lot of minutes, and for the most part I thought we did pretty well.”
USC hauled down numerous offensive and defensive boards Monday night, and the former led to many second-chance points.
Junior Anissa Janzig had 15 points and 11 rebounds in the game. She had a double-double in each game USC played in the tournament. Freshman Shianne Robertson made her first varsity start and made the most of it. She had 24 points and 14 rebounds.
“The first two nights of this tournament we really struggled on the boards,” Hendrickson said. “But I think that’s the biggest difference in the game tonight, was our rebounding.”
When USC wasn’t grabbing boards on offense, it was playing strong defensively. The Rebels held Legacy Christian Academy to low percentage shots all night long.
“We played a lot of zone, and the idea of the zone is to make them shoot from the perimeter,” Hendrickson said. “They made some shots that I didn’t know they were going to make, so credit to them that they made some shots, but I think for the most part we kept them to one shot. If they didn’t make it, we got most of those rebounds.”
Hendrickson said he was impressed with how his team rebounded after dropping the first game in the tournament and added that this wasn’t the first time the girls have thrived after some adversity.
“This team, if they’re anything, they’re resilient,” he said. “They don’t let a lot bother them. We don’t have a deep bench and they bounce back really well. They’ve done that every single season they’ve been playing for me.”
USC (6-3 overall, 1-2 Gopher Conference) will be back in action at 7:15 p.m. Jan. 7 against Blooming Prairie.
Statistics are in the Scoreboard: Dec. 30 post.
